"Religion, a system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion; a code of behavior by which individuals may judge the personal and social consequences of their actions; and a frame of reference by which individuals may relate to their group and their universe. Usually, religion concerns itself with that which transcends the known, the natural, or the expected; it is an acknowledgment of the extraordinary, the mysterious, and the supernatural. The religious consciousness generally recognizes a transcendent, sacred order and elaborates a technique to deal with the inexplicable or unpredictable elements of human experience in the world or beyond it."
Dictionary meaning of religion is given as
"A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
A specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects."
So is it that a particular religion basically comprises of some common people who have certain similar beliefs about their God and the society they live in with the intent to convince others the truth of those beliefs? Like in Hinduism we have over million Gods and Goddesses who are worshipped in different forms and rituals for all of them vary drastically. So basically we have something tangible in store here. For instance Christians visit the Church every Sunday. Muslims consider Friday to be their auspicious day, Hindus consider Saturday or the full moon day to be inauspicious. Again Hindus consider cow as their holy god and whereas eating pig flesh is a taboo amongst the Muslims. So this is what religion means. Being religious is to subscribe to what your religion preaches and following the rules set therein. Basically everything is linked to God and religion is just another way of governing the society (in old days there was lack of legislations for immoral and unethical issues)
Spirituality, described as "adhyatma" in Sanskrit meaning "which pertains to soul (aatma)" In essence, spirituality does not confirm itself to tangible beings. It goes beyond physical matter, something larger and intangible than one self. Spirituality connects you with a higher dimension of life, beyond earthly pleasures. Some call this higher dimension God, Love, Spirit, Soul. Basically they are all the same. You may connect yourself with God or with other people and feel one with them. It helps you to increase your awareness with self, God, divinity, etc. It is a personal connection. There are no beliefs imposed on you like religion does. Spirituality does not asks you to perform in a certain manner. It does not tell you to place your belief in some particular God. We all are immortal souls belonging to ONE - Spirit. We have hundreds of religions preaching all over the world, but at the end of it we all are ONE. This feeling of higher consiousness of being one is being spiritual.
There is a very thin line of difference between reliogion and spirituality. Depending on how you look at it, there will be different opinions on the issue. There is no single answer, there are no right or wrong answers either. Beliefs are something you draw from your experiences and your surroundings!
Bibliography:
American Psychological Association (APA)
Modern Language Association
Chicago Manual Style (CMS)
Friday, 16 March 2007
Cement Prices - what it means to common man!
Enter February 2007 and the entire country was eagerly awaiting the budget. Or was it the entire world awaiting to see how well India would open up her economy in the face of globalisation? To many the budget is still a mystery. Was it good or bad or reasonable enough for world's fastest growing economy?
Drilling to one major hit back on the cement sector - the government has taken control over the pricing. The rationale - cement leaders formed some sort of a cartel (remember the oil cartels in middle east who took over entire control of oil production and prices to the world) and kept on increasing the prices neglecting the government's warning. They managed to pool in a large sum of profit despite being in the manufacturing sector! Today most manufacturing in India earn around 10 to 15% profits whereas cement was earning a whooping 70% according to some source! (did you just wish you were owning some mines?) So price control was required. Or was it really required?
The budget has forced the cement leaders to slash down their prices so drastically that virtually all their extra margins have been wiped out. To many this was a knee jerk reaction on the path of the government. After all in a free market, demand and supply forces regulate the prices. When there has been no proved case of market failure due to high prices, why did the government interfere? When India is in the race of globalisation and liberalisation, free market is what everyone wants and moreover is required! Foreign investors tend to shy away from economies where too much control is in the hands of the government. Hopefully it is a short term measure! Our minister of Commerce was lately asked by one of the media channels the reasons for this action taken by the government. Today, though media is supposed to be the strongest medium of justice in the country, it was unable to help the cement industry too in the wake of these regulations.
So by how much do we think inflation would be curbed by reducing and regulating cement prices? Or has there been any change in the inflation ever since cement prices have been forcibly dropped? Though India is a fast growing economy and can absorb any amount of infrastructural development, how fast is the infrastructure growing in our country to validate that cement prices cause inflation? Going further, reducing the prices will cause pressure on these industries who will be unable to expand exponentially, thus creating obvious shortage in the supply of cement. Do we have a real subsitute for cement?
Next question that comes to common man's mind is - Why isn't the government concentrating on long term development plans for the country? Social security, employment opportunities, primary and secondary education, higher education, public health are still neglected although huge amounts are collected by way of the one-thousand-and-one taxes we have here! If you're paying cess on anything (which is likely that you're paying cess on the soap and toothpaste you use), that amount goes to funding education in India. But we still see that most government schools are 100 students in one class (that class ranges from 1st to 10th) So can we safely conclude that a large chunk of the fund is going in our politician's pockets? So then why can't the cement industry cash in some extra profit if the market has not reacted adversely? Anyway, our politicians never get raided or caught for blackmoney or money laundering! Atleast cement industries are paying their taxes and funding the government (and ofcourse our politicians) free of charge!
Drilling to one major hit back on the cement sector - the government has taken control over the pricing. The rationale - cement leaders formed some sort of a cartel (remember the oil cartels in middle east who took over entire control of oil production and prices to the world) and kept on increasing the prices neglecting the government's warning. They managed to pool in a large sum of profit despite being in the manufacturing sector! Today most manufacturing in India earn around 10 to 15% profits whereas cement was earning a whooping 70% according to some source! (did you just wish you were owning some mines?) So price control was required. Or was it really required?
The budget has forced the cement leaders to slash down their prices so drastically that virtually all their extra margins have been wiped out. To many this was a knee jerk reaction on the path of the government. After all in a free market, demand and supply forces regulate the prices. When there has been no proved case of market failure due to high prices, why did the government interfere? When India is in the race of globalisation and liberalisation, free market is what everyone wants and moreover is required! Foreign investors tend to shy away from economies where too much control is in the hands of the government. Hopefully it is a short term measure! Our minister of Commerce was lately asked by one of the media channels the reasons for this action taken by the government. Today, though media is supposed to be the strongest medium of justice in the country, it was unable to help the cement industry too in the wake of these regulations.
So by how much do we think inflation would be curbed by reducing and regulating cement prices? Or has there been any change in the inflation ever since cement prices have been forcibly dropped? Though India is a fast growing economy and can absorb any amount of infrastructural development, how fast is the infrastructure growing in our country to validate that cement prices cause inflation? Going further, reducing the prices will cause pressure on these industries who will be unable to expand exponentially, thus creating obvious shortage in the supply of cement. Do we have a real subsitute for cement?
Next question that comes to common man's mind is - Why isn't the government concentrating on long term development plans for the country? Social security, employment opportunities, primary and secondary education, higher education, public health are still neglected although huge amounts are collected by way of the one-thousand-and-one taxes we have here! If you're paying cess on anything (which is likely that you're paying cess on the soap and toothpaste you use), that amount goes to funding education in India. But we still see that most government schools are 100 students in one class (that class ranges from 1st to 10th) So can we safely conclude that a large chunk of the fund is going in our politician's pockets? So then why can't the cement industry cash in some extra profit if the market has not reacted adversely? Anyway, our politicians never get raided or caught for blackmoney or money laundering! Atleast cement industries are paying their taxes and funding the government (and ofcourse our politicians) free of charge!
Wednesday, 14 March 2007
A thought for PopCorn!
Alright, so you go for a movie with you friends and during the interval you buy a bag of pop corn... cost to you is Rs 35 per small bag! You think that's a whooping lot, but you want to munch something; so you buy it anyway! Later you you come home and tally your expenses of the day and you think back "hey, I just spent 35 bucks on pop corn! Wait a minute, something is really wrong here! Am I insane?" And if you're an economics student, it hits you harder probably. Remember we learnt when commodities are scarce, their prices are high. Simple reason - demand for commodities is more than the supply for them. So when you equate this demand- supply lesson from your school to the POP CORN, it doesn't make sense suddenly. There never seemed to be scarcity of popcorn in the theatre! So now you ask yourself why is it so heavily priced? May be you would argue that factors like the theatre has to pay salaries, electricty, the one-thousand taxes we have, rent and so on which gets included in the selling price of the popcorn. Okay, given these need to be added to the selling price, but does it warrant charging 35 bucks from each and every person who comes to buy popcorn and other million items they have?
Lets do some basic calculations... corn seeds will not cost any more than few pennies, and they don't even need too much labour for pop the seeds (afterall we see the huge machines popping the corn). So now you realise they are marking up the popcorn bag by more than 200%!!! And inspite of that, everyone's still buying this popcorn! You could probably buy a 10 buck pouch of ready to pop corn and make it at home! But that would make you look too stingy if you carried home made popcorn to the movies right?
So now you break your head and wonder what is it that makes people buy popcorn at such a hefty price? Various factors - a lot of people will look at it from the marketing point of view. Lets look from the economics point of view. Those guys at the theatre are able to price it at 35 bucks because we as public are ready to pay for it. Doesn't make much sense? Look at it from our point of view. It is because we are insensitive to the price tags put up in the theatre and henceforth willing to pay any sum they charge us, that the theatre is able to take a large chunk of your money in a single movie you come to watch! Those who do not wish to pay will get their own food, or not have anything at all from the cafeteria. So the choice is ours. There are no demand and supply factors working here, there is no big marketing happening here either. The theatre starts selling the popcorn at 25 bucks first following other theatre's examples. It later realises that people don't bother about the prices, so it hikes the prices. Still there is no change in the number of popcorn eaters. Running a theatre is like any other business. And every business' aim is to maximise profits. When people are willing to pay more (obviously there are no signs of demotivation) why not cash in that extra profit?
Does that mean we all should stop eating popcorn in the theatre (and instead carry our own)? Well, NO! It's not without any reason that you're being charged 35 bucks! If the theatre had a better bargaining capacity, it would have charged 100 bucks (remember monopoly?) But it can't charge that much either! Enter demand supply lessons!
Lets do some basic calculations... corn seeds will not cost any more than few pennies, and they don't even need too much labour for pop the seeds (afterall we see the huge machines popping the corn). So now you realise they are marking up the popcorn bag by more than 200%!!! And inspite of that, everyone's still buying this popcorn! You could probably buy a 10 buck pouch of ready to pop corn and make it at home! But that would make you look too stingy if you carried home made popcorn to the movies right?
So now you break your head and wonder what is it that makes people buy popcorn at such a hefty price? Various factors - a lot of people will look at it from the marketing point of view. Lets look from the economics point of view. Those guys at the theatre are able to price it at 35 bucks because we as public are ready to pay for it. Doesn't make much sense? Look at it from our point of view. It is because we are insensitive to the price tags put up in the theatre and henceforth willing to pay any sum they charge us, that the theatre is able to take a large chunk of your money in a single movie you come to watch! Those who do not wish to pay will get their own food, or not have anything at all from the cafeteria. So the choice is ours. There are no demand and supply factors working here, there is no big marketing happening here either. The theatre starts selling the popcorn at 25 bucks first following other theatre's examples. It later realises that people don't bother about the prices, so it hikes the prices. Still there is no change in the number of popcorn eaters. Running a theatre is like any other business. And every business' aim is to maximise profits. When people are willing to pay more (obviously there are no signs of demotivation) why not cash in that extra profit?
Does that mean we all should stop eating popcorn in the theatre (and instead carry our own)? Well, NO! It's not without any reason that you're being charged 35 bucks! If the theatre had a better bargaining capacity, it would have charged 100 bucks (remember monopoly?) But it can't charge that much either! Enter demand supply lessons!
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